A TV grab shows anchorman Bai Yansong wearing a green tie on Oct 19, 2011. [Photo/CFP]

"I just want the students to know that I'm also wearing a green one. And we are all great people and are as good as those wearing red scarves." Bai Yansong, a famous anchor of China Central Television, voiced his support to students wearing green scarves at a primary school in Xi'an by wearing a green tie on a TV program, Oct 19, 2011.

The program focused on a recent controversial issue, triggered by First Experimental Primary School in Northwestern China's Xi'an that made children whose schoolwork and general behavior were not yet good enough to wear green scarves instead of the red scarf of the Chinese Young Pioneers.

"The original idea for designing the green scarf was to strengthen education and to encourage the pupils to work harder," said Chen Hong, the school's principal.

The practice that divided students into "good" and "bad" has provoked a lot of discussions on Sina Weibo, a Chinese twitter-like microblogging website.

The color of green in Chinese culture carries an annoying implication particularly because "green hats" are the Chinese symbol of a cuckold. Many Weibo users thought it was inappropriate to make pupils wear green scarves.

"It is a violation of dignity to make bad students wear green scarves," said a blogger with the username Suosez.

"If bad students have to wear green scarves, then bad teachers should wear green hats," another blogger said.

"The Chinese version of Steve Jobs has died in primary school because his pride has been hurt by the green scarf," said another blogger.

"It is an absolute discrimination against children," said yet another.

"Seeing the students in Xi'an wearing green scarves reminds me of some miserable memories. I cannot forget that I was the second batch to wear a red scarf in my class. I cannot forget the scar on my hand left by my Chinese teacher. And I cannot forget that my math teacher threw my test paper on the ground and insisted that it was copied," a blogger with the username Kivalailai recalled.

"The green scarves will cast a shadow over the students and bring them inferiority or jealousy, which are quite bad for their mental health," said a blogger.

The school has halted the use of green scarves as of Wednesday and parent-teacher meetings have been held to explain the situation, according to teachers at the school.